Chapter 135 Shaya: Am I a Femme Fatale? (5k)
Hiss—
Shaya stared at the words appearing on the book.
In an instant, he gasped in shock.
“King of Knights”—Isadorella von Freysburg.
To be more precise, this name should have originally belonged to the empire’s Second Princess.
The moment this name appeared, Shaya finally understood the reason for the numerous coincidences in the historical echo he had experienced earlier.
Why, the instant he saw that Knight of the Round Table, did he feel an inexplicable sense of déjà vu?
And why, despite being male, did his appearance possess an exquisite beauty akin to a maiden, with eyes and brows so similar to the Second Princess that he almost mistook her several times?
Even during several close encounters, he had fleetingly had the illusion of “Brother, you smell so good,” leading Shaya to question his own sexual orientation. That was why, after leaving the historical echo, he had impatiently sought out Little Ai for confirmation.
Originally, he had assumed that those coincidences and the sense of déjà vu were due to the blood relation between the Knight of the Round Table and Isadorella.
After all, they were ancestor and descendant, and it was within reason for some resemblance in appearance, even to the point of hereditary traits skipping generations.
However, it now seemed that this was not a case of hereditary traits skipping generations or devolving back to ancestors, or any other nonsensical reason…
It was, in fact, the person themselves logging in to play the role.
Two acquaintances from the present, both donning new disguises, had put on quite a show in another time and space, a thousand years ago.
The key point was that Shaya had genuinely treated everything in the historical echo as a mere performance. Now that the show was over, he had left.
However, it seemed…
Someone had taken it seriously.
“But…”
“Why would she appear in that Escarnia of a thousand years ago, and in the identity of the Knight of the Round Table?”
Shaya’s murmurs had barely begun.
In the next moment, Sylvia’s light golden script slowly appeared in the void.
She had also seen the information described in that book.
“Miss Isadorella… she must be that Second Princess whom I saw at the dinner of the Borgia Family, and at Brother Shaya’s home.”
“If that’s the case, then it’s understandable.”
“It’s because of the Holy Sword she contracted, perhaps.”
The witch’s gaze was distant, her azure silver eyes flickering with an unreadable light.
“Legends can sense the flow of the river of time, and Seats of power can, to a certain extent, interfere with the history they occupy.”
“And that Holy Sword was born at the very beginning of the stars…”
“The history it has experienced since its birth spans several ancient eras, and the immense mystery it contains has long surpassed the scope of ordinary Seats of Power.”
“It was precisely with the help of that Holy Sword that Her Royal Highness the Princess was able to resist the erosion of historical correction, moving against the current of history and forcibly altering a period of time.”
Sylvia’s eyes grew distant.
With the status of a Seat of Power-level Beast Tamer, although she herself was not ancient, she already possessed the ability to stand outside of time and look back into the past.
At this very moment, she clearly saw a golden sword of indescribable radiance from the upper reaches of history.
The Holy Sword was plunged straight into the river of history, unmoving, forcibly rewriting the original historical flow and carving out a brand new era.
This was a feat of single-handedly opposing the grand momentum of history.
“So… that century-long bloody war between the Holy See and the Empire’s Sword…”
Shaya felt a bit numb and slowly spoke.
“That’s right, it must be for that reason too.”
Sylvia nodded.
“Such an act of rewriting the past, going against the grand momentum, would inevitably leave traces in the river of spacetime.”
“For extraordinary beings below the Legend rank, they would know nothing… they would simply accept this altered history as the natural and inevitable course of events.”
“Ordinary Legends could sense something, detecting that the past history had deviated, but it would only be a vague perception, not very clear.”
“Only those who have reached the boundary of a Seat of Power… or participants like Brother Shaya, or Little Ai protected by the Holy Spear, can clearly know everything that happened, retaining the memories before history was rewritten.”
The Holy Sword and the Holy Spear possessed equivalent status and abilities independent of time.
“The Holy See of the Holy Divine Kingdom must also possess powerful beings who have transcended the limits of a Seat of Power, who knew everything that had happened, which is why they launched that holy war, intending to correct the erroneous history.”
“It’s just that, unfortunately, the Holy See must have failed.”
“So… Shaya has stirred up trouble with a new girl in the thousand years ago… that is, Princess Isadorella?”
Aerora’s cold voice chimed in.
According to Shaya’s description, she was a reckless fighter, no, a reckless wife type… she wasn’t good at listening to discussions about intersecting timelines or correct/incorrect history, nor was she interested.
In any case, she was the sharp sword beside Shaya. As long as she trusted the young man unconditionally and carried out his commands with all her might, that was enough.
Therefore, Aerora only grasped the single point that mattered to her from Sylvia’s explanation.
That is, as she had expected… Shaya’s cross-temporal womanizer passive ability had been triggered again.
And it was the Princess, no less.
Unexpectedly, why did it feel not so unexpected?
“If it’s Brother Shaya… it’s true, it’s not that surprising.”
A hint of helplessness flashed in Sylvia’s beautiful eyes.
How to put it, perhaps this was karma.
She herself was once a recipient of Shaya’s salvation, and the first to “take the fruit.”
But at this moment, this karma had finally come back to her, and it was her turn to watch her beloved boy stir up trouble with other girls.
The solidified twilight around the Azure Silver Witch began to surge once more.
A phantom river of time slowly emerged from the twilight.
And Shaya quietly gazed at the myriad of fleeting illusory scenes within that phantom river.
That was the former Escarnia, and also the current Freista Empire, or rather, the Crimson Empire.
…
He saw Vortigern and the Abyss Monsters being driven out of the entirety of Escarnia, the banner of the Knight of the Round Table planted across the land once plagued by calamity.
He saw the birth of the Holy Calendar, the end of the old era, and the beginning of the new.
The heavy rain stopped, and the sun’s blessing shone through the gaps in the dark clouds.
Giant blocks of chalk were transported from all directions, and on the formerly decaying and dilapidated royal capital of Escarnia, a pristine new royal city was gradually built.
Camelot—the Holy City.
He saw the day Camelot was completed and a new kingdom was founded.
Myriad citizens and soldiers cheered and celebrated, welcoming the arrival of a great era, an immortal dynasty.
Upon the throne, the figure of the maiden holding the Golden Sword was even more radiant than usual.
Inspiring every guest who witnessed the back of this undefeated king to be absolutely certain of the prosperous future of this newborn empire.
However, no one saw that on this day of feasting and drinking for knights, soldiers, and commoners alike…
Only the maiden on the throne, her exquisite cute face shrouded in the shadow of the Holy Sword, showed no smile.
…
The scenes in the phantom river of time began to accelerate.
Just as every powerful nation would experience…
From its beginnings as a burgeoning, vibrant new nation.
Then, progressing steadily and establishing an unprecedented era of prosperity.
And then, from its peak, it began to decline.
Slowly, the Knights of the Round Table who were born in the previous era and had followed the Knight of the Round Table in battles fought in the south began to grow old.
“Your grandfather once saw the renowned Cain.”
This was Gawain’s favorite anecdote to boast about to his descendants, making them half-believe him.
By this time, stories about Cain and Asuka had become vague legends.
Mixed with tales of brave youths slaying evil dragons spun by bards, making it impossible to discern truth from falsehood.
The images continued to accelerate.
The seats for the elders at the Round Table meetings gradually decreased.
The Knights of the Round Table were at least Titled rank, and many were Legends… but human Legends also had a lifespan, two to three hundred years being the extreme.
Only on the throne, the silver-haired Empress’s face remained unchanged.
The existence of the Holy Sword and its immense mystery seemed to freeze her age, eternally maintaining her youthful maiden appearance.
Later, the prosperous era ended.
The splendor faded, and the clamor subsided.
Only the slender figure in the Hall of Thrones became increasingly lonely.
The humanity in her eyes gradually faded, leaving only the radiance of divinity shining more and more brightly, a crimson blood moon vaguely visible behind the throne.
The Empress began to neglect state affairs, delegating the empire’s authority to the descendants of the Round Table and the Oathbound Families… while she herself spent day and night in the magnificent building opposite the royal palace, almost level with the main hall of the palace.
The Hall of Heroes.
Then, she would stare blankly for days at the simple stone monument inscribed with “Black Knight Cain” at the very front of the Hall of Heroes.
Among the descendants of the Round Table and the Oathbound Families, there were naturally loyal individuals, but human hearts are always fickle.
Moreover, the Knight of the Round Table’s current laissez-faire attitude towards governing was practically an invitation for ambitious usurpers.
Thus, in the Western Continent, the empire’s reputation began to take a sharp downturn.
The title “Knight of the Round Table,” once used by the outside world to praise her as “the embodiment of the eight virtues of a knight” and “the most perfect knight and king,” gradually fell out of use. In its place, the more neutral term “Crimson Empress” began to be used.
However, this imperial monarch paid no heed to the rumors swirling outside.
Except for one instance, during the century-long bloody war, when she confronted the Holy See’s descended Saint and exchanged a sword strike, she spent most of her time standing in the Hall of Heroes.
As time went on, she grew further and further away from the mortal world.
Until, today.
…
The phantom flowing river of time came to a halt.
“If this continues… what will happen to Isadorella?”
Shaya asked softly.
“She will disappear.”
As if Shaya’s question had been anticipated, Sylvia’s ethereal voice echoed in the ocean of his consciousness.
“Normal historical correction merely forcibly expels travelers who do not belong to this timeline back to their original one.”
“But the Second Princess is different… she has stayed in that timeline for too long, and has changed too much.”
“While the Holy Sword born at the dawn of the stars is powerful, it can never contend against the river of time that has continued to flow since ancient times.”
“The longer she stays, the greater the accumulated historical corrective force becomes. By now, it is no longer a matter of expulsion, but of annihilation.”
“If it continues any longer, once the Holy Sword’s protection shatters…”
“Then the backlash of nearly a thousand years of accumulated corrective force will be enough to erase all traces of a Seat of Power from the entire river of time.”
Sylvia’s words were calm, but the implication was extremely heavy.
It was not simply death, for simple death at least meant others would remember.
It was the complete erasure of all traces and imprints of existence from time and history.
Apart from the supreme beings who could traverse the river of time, no one would remember her name, and everything she had done would be erased or replaced by others under the effect of historical correction.
“If Her Royal Highness chooses to give up now, there might still be a chance to return to the correct history with the Holy Sword’s protection.”
“But…”
The Azure Silver Witch’s words trailed off, but the meaning was clear.
She herself had also buried herself for five hundred years… so she understood Isadorella’s current predicament intimately.
The passage of long ages could change many things.
Whether it be one’s original intentions, dreams, or even humanity.
Sylvia had sealed herself in the White Tower for five hundred years without any contact with the outside world, yet even so, she had exhausted all her efforts just to maintain her humanity without being corrupted or tainted.
Let alone someone who had existed for a full millennium, and had been walking the world during that entire millennium.
The original life of the Second Princess Isadorella had only been a little over twenty years… compared to a thousand years, it was but a drop in the ocean.
By now, that Empress had become completely different from the Princess who had shared hot pot with them at Shaya’s house. Divinity had overwhelmed humanity, taking the dominant role.
At this moment, her form of existence was closer to a deity than a human.
A god walking upon the mortal realm.
In such a situation, even if Shaya revealed his Cain identity, it might not be enough to save anything.
Because the original intentions of the Princess had long since been corrupted, transforming into distorted obsessions and divinity…
How much weight would mortal emotions still hold in her heart, no one could say for sure.
Listening to Sylvia’s words, Shaya couldn’t help but pause slightly.
In the next moment.
He saw a cerulean light screen silently unfurl in his mind.
【You have obtained a new negative Historical Legend Status—”Nation Ruiner”】
【Historical Legend Status—Nation Ruiner】
【Rarity: Gold】
【Owner: Shaya Egut】
【Territory: Escarnia/Freista Empire】
【As the saying goes, ‘a beautiful woman brings disaster,’ a beauty that can topple nations can cause a whole prosperous dynasty to fall.】
【And now, you have proven through your own experience that who says men are inferior to women? Men can also be ‘handsome disaster,’ rewriting the fate of an ancient nation.】
【In this era, you have been inscribed in the history textbooks of every nation on the Western Continent. The deeds passed down by Cain have been repeatedly studied and contemplated by archaeologists and scholars of every generation.】
【They say: Cain should be viewed dialectically. As a savior hero, his achievements are indelible. However, on the other hand, he should not be deified excessively. Although it was not his intention, if it were not for Cain’s existence, perhaps the Knight of the Round Table would have calmly accepted death, and the empire would not have developed to such an extreme state… Overall, his merits and demerits are in a 70/30 split.】
【Regardless, the fate of Escarnia and the Freista Empire has been changed because of your efforts and struggles…】
【Even if this change in national destiny is not what you had hoped for.】
…
【As you have simultaneously obtained the Gold quality negative Historical Legend Status “Nation Ruiner” and the positive Historical Legend Status “Guardian,” a portion of the mission objectives has been achieved.】
【Rewards for this portion of the mission have been issued.】
【Mission Reward: Sands of Time x200.】
Instantly, Shaya felt hundreds of pure and dreamlike stars ascend in his spiritual world.
Like a dream, like an illusion, akin to a vast galaxy.
He felt his spiritual power ring out with a thunderous roar under the effect of the Sands of Time.
The barriers of the Fifth and Sixth Rings were broken.
In an instant, he saw his sixth Soul Pact form, signifying that from this day forward, he had truly entered the realm of Titled individuals.
This was a strong individual who could possess a title exclusively for himself, just one step away from Legend.
The path to Legend would hinder many Titled individuals, but for Shaya, there were no obstacles; he had already forged his own legendary path and left his mark on history.
The chasm separating Legend, and even Seat of Power, would not trouble him for long.
If it were just a few days ago, Shaya, who had finally broken through the Sixth Ring and received such generous rewards, would have surely rejoiced.
Perhaps he would have even asked Little Ai for a “Special Commemorative Pillow for Breaking Through the Sixth Ring” or something similar.
However.
At this moment, recalling everything from the illusory river of time manifested by Sylvia.
Shaya found that the joy of advancement didn’t feel as satisfying.
…
PS: Wrote too much again and was late, I really shouldn’t have made promises, alas ORZ
